The Ethical Dilemmas in "The Paper"

Sean Neidig
sn033012@ohio.edu

The film "The Paper" may be a fictional story but it certainly has a few examples of the ethical dilemmas that journalists will face during their careers. The most obvious of these issues is the conflict Henry has with Alicia over whether the paper should stop the presses to change the following day's headline.  All of the ethics codes we have looked at have said that perhaps the most important rule to follow is the journalist's obligation to report the truth accurately.  Henry knew that the story that was going to run was wrong, so he wanted to stop printing the wrong story, no matter the cost.  While there is no doubt that Henry should not have got into a physical fight with his boss and co-worker, Henry's devotion to the truth is commendable.

Photo from http://johnrieber.com

This scene is also a great example of another ideal that is part of several ethics codes, which is the journalist's obligation to minimize harm.   If the original story ran, it's obvious that the two men who were wrongly arrested for the murders would have been harmed even more than they already were.  It should have been a no-brainer decision to stop the wrong headline from running, but it is clear that Alicia was not thinking like an ethical journalist when she refused to stop the presses.  Alicia even admitted that she was fine with being wrong for a day and then running the right story the next day.  The concern over money played a huge part in Alicia's mindset, and when money is a lerger concern than ethical practices, poor choices are often made.

With all of that being said, Henry certainly seems to make at least one questionable ethical decision.  During his meeting with the Sentinel, Henry steals information off of the desk of the editor who interviews him for a job there.  While there are no guidelines on this in the ethics codes we looked at, there is something that seems sleazy about blatantly stealing information from someone's desk.  I doubt that Henry would have been understanding had someone done that to him, so I don't think it was right for him to do it. Reporters should be mindful that they represent an organization as well as themselves, so doing something like this not only ruined Henry's chances of getting the Sentinel job, it may have damaged his paper's reputation.

Another conflict that is very apparent in "The Paper" is less of an ethical concern and more about how a journalist must balance their professional and personal lives.  Henry was obviously very devoted to his job, and that took its toll on his relationship with his wife.  Henry knew that in order to obtain the truth behind the arrests of the two young men, he would have to sacrifice time with his wife.  This shows that sometimes in order to be an ethical journalist, one must make sacrifices to accurately report the news.  This may make it harder for people to follow ethical guidelines because they may want to take the easy way out, and in turn they may cut corners when it comes to following ethical guidelines.